Privacy policy

SurveyBods is a research survey panel created for people in the UK. We have created a safe online environment where people can complete surveys in exchange for points, which in turn can be redeemed for cash or vouchers.

Who are we?

We are Research Bods Online Limited trading as SurveyBods. Our company no. is 7642707 and our registered office is at 4th Floor, 21 Queen Street, Leeds, LS1 2TW. We are the controller of your personal information collected on the SurveyBods site www.surveybods.com or the app (Site). This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use your personal information. We are required under data protection law to tell you the things set out in this Notice.

If you have any questions or concerns about this Notice, or about how we are using your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer who can be contacted by email at dpo@researchbods.com or by calling 0113 246 9994.

What is this Privacy Notice about?

This Notice tells you how we use your personal information when you sign up to be a panel member on our SurveyBods panel.

This Notice answers the following questions:

What personal information do we collect about you?

How do we use your personal information and what is our legal ground for using it?

Do we use your personal information to make automated decisions?

What happens if I don’t provide the information you have asked for?

How long will we keep your personal information?

Who will we share your personal information with?

Will we transfer your personal information outside the EEA?

What rights do I have over my personal information?

How we’ll tell you about changes to this Notice

How to contact us

What personal information do we collect about you?

When you register to become a SurveyBods panel member and during your time as a SurveyBods panel member, we will collect the following personal information from you: full name, title, age, date of birth, home address, telephone number, gender, bank account details, if you have any children, nationality, the country you are living in, email address, employment status, location of your workplace, job level, IP Address, marital status, photographs, videos, location data, operating system, browser version, cookie details, the content you viewed on the Site, how long you stayed and on which pages, and your navigation around the Site.

We will also collect any:

information you submit when completing any of the research tasks (for example surveys, polls, discussion rooms, focus groups) we invite you to participate in, or feedback, comments or other information that you provide to us through the Site, including information which you may upload such as visual data such as images or videos; and

other data to ensure and check compliance with the terms and conditions of membership of the SurveyBods panel and/or otherwise as required by law.

When you register to become a SurveyBods panel member and during your time as a SurveyBods panel member, we will collect the following sensitive or "special categories" of personal information from you: race or ethnicity.

We will collect this information from you when you are completing surveys, carrying out your activities as a SurveyBods panellist, and using the SurveyBods website and app.

Our website and app also use cookies. Full details of the cookies we use can be found in our cookie policy at: Cookie Policy

When and how do we collect information?

We (or our authorised third parties) may collect information about you:

when you first register as a SurveyBods panel member;

when you update your details via the Site or app or otherwise;

when you voluntarily complete any of the research activities (such as surveys, polls, discussion rooms, focus groups) we invite you to participate in;

when you contact us or provide us with information through the Site or app or otherwise at any other point (for instance, when you contact us with an enquiry, request or feedback);

in monitoring your use of the Site and app;

and/or otherwise as required by law; and

through the use of "cookies" and/or other devices.

Information on the Site may be publicly available

Please always think carefully before disclosing information to other members of the SurveyBods panel or making your information publicly available on the Site. We recommend that you do not reveal to others via the Site any personal information about yourself or anyone else (such as your telephone number or home address). It is important that you are aware that any information you disclose to another member of the SurveyBods panel may then be disclosed by that panel member. We have no responsibility or control over the contents of communications made between members of the SurveyBods panel.

How do we use your personal information and what is our legal ground for using it?

We use the information we have about you as a SurveyBods panel member to:

verify your identity (eg. when you register as a SurveyBods panel member or return to the Site);

provide market research services to our clients;

send you invitations to participate in research activities which will be surveys, polls, discussion rooms, focus groups, diary studies, product tests for us or our clients plus and other research activities that we feel may be relevant to you based on the information you provided to us;

administer your account and your contract with us to be a SurveyBods panel member;

create anonymous, statistical profiles of membership based on the information provided by you and other members of the SurveyBods panel;

collate and aggregate responses to research tasks by you and other members of the SurveyBods panel to present the anonymised results in research reports - these will not be used to identify any individual members of the SurveyBods panel;

send you communications about SurveyBods, including service messages to make you aware of new features or changes on the Site and information about prize draws and rewards;

to show our appreciation for being a SurveyBods panel member, we reward members for completing research activities. For the avoidance of doubt, we will use your information to enter you into any prize draws that you are eligible to take part in or, where invited to do so, have asked to be entered into;

let you know if you have won prize draws, administer prizes, allow you to redeem points for cash/vouchers. If you are a prize winner, we will publish a list of prize winners on the Site;

monitor and develop the Site to improve your experience;

process and deal with any complaints or enquiries made by or about you;

monitor your compliance with the terms and conditions of the contract of the SurveyBods panel;

enforce your contract with us if needed including sharing your personal information to get professional advice;

provide customer support and respond to, and communicate with you about your requests;

contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information;

ask you if you want to join new communities (in which case you will need to refer to the privacy notices of those communities to see how they will use your personal information);

where you are using our app only: see if you want to take part in usages studies where we track the apps and websites visited by you and send research tasks to you based on this tracking;

where you are using our app only: carry out location tracking so we can trigger research tasks for you based on the location of your device that you are accessing the app through.

Where we collect your personal information, our legal grounds for using your personal information in these ways are on the basis that it is necessary to perform our contract with you to enable you to become a SurveyBods panel member. Once you have become a SurveyBods panel member, our legal grounds for using your personal information in these ways are that it is in our legitimate interests to be able to administer the SurveyBods panel and perform market research.

Our legal ground for tracking your online behaviour for our usage studies and for tracking your location is that you have given us consent to do this. You can change your mind about this at any time. For the usage studies, to change your mind you will need to go into the study on the app and click the "end" button. For the location tracking to change your mind you will need to go into the settings on your smart device and turn it off. If you have any questions about how to change your mind, please contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact details at the start of this Notice.

We use cookies to help us improve the performance and user experience of our website and app. Other than as set out in our cookie policy, we do not collect information through our cookies that identifies you personally. Our legal ground for using cookies on our website and app is that it is in our legitimate interests to monitor how our website and app are used and to make sure we can improve the way they perform.

Our legal ground for using your sensitive or "special categories" of personal information is that you have given us your explicit consent.

Emails from SurveyBods

All SurveyBods panel members will receive emails in connection with the Site and the panel which include emails about new features or changes on the Site, and general news and updates, newsflashes, research activities on the Site, and other research activities that we feel may be relevant to you based on the information you provided to us and information about prize draws in connection with research tasks on the Site.

These emails are necessary for us to provide research activities to you and by registering to be a SurveyBods panel member, you agree that you understand this.

You can decide to stop receiving these emails from us at any time. The easiest way to do this is to click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of any of the emails.

Do we use your personal information to make automated decisions?

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a legal or significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.

What happens if I don’t provide the information you have asked for?

If you don’t provide the personal information we need, we may not be able to register you as a SurveyBods panel member. If you have any concerns about whether you need to provide the personal information, please get in touch with our Data Protection Officer using the contact details at the start of this Notice.

How long will we keep your personal information?

We will keep the personal information that we have collected from you as a member of the SurveyBods panel for a period of 12 months from the time you decide to leave the panel.

If a dispute arises between us, we will hold on to your personal information so that we can deal with the dispute and this may mean that we keep your personal information for longer than 12 months.

We will ensure that your personal information is securely deleted after the periods stated above.

Who will we share your personal information with?

We will only share the personal information that you give us with the following third parties and for the following reasons:

With our clients: We share information with our clients so that they can use the results of our SurveyBods research. The legal ground for this is that it is in our legitimate interests to be able to share information with our clients so that we can provide our services to them;

With third parties who provide software or support for our SurveyBods panel: We use reputable third parties to provide us with our systems and support to be able to provide our SurveyBods panel. They may access your personal information to the extent that they need to in order to provide their services or provide support to us. The legal ground for this is that it is in our legitimate interests to be able to use reputable third parties to provide appropriate systems to us and to fix issues with our systems;

With third parties who provide or support our IT systems: We use reputable third parties to provide us with our IT systems and support for them. They may access your personal information to the extent that they need to in order to provide their services or provide support to us. The legal ground for this is that it is in our legitimate interests to be able to use reputable third parties to provide appropriate IT systems to us and to fix issues with our IT systems;

With a company that we merge with or transfer our business assets to: If we sell all or part of our business, or merge with another company, we may transfer personal information that we have collected as described in this Notice, along with our other business assets, to the company that we are selling to or merging with. The legal ground for this is that it is in our legitimate interests to be able to merge or sell our business;

With entities, companies or individuals outside ResearchBods for legal reasons: We will share your personal information with entities, companies or individuals outside ResearchBods where it is necessary to comply with any law, rule, regulation, legal procedure or governmental request that is applicable to us. The legal ground for this is that sharing your personal information in this way is necessary in order for us to comply with our legal obligations;

With entities, companies or individuals outside ResearchBods to obtain advice: We also share your personal information with external professional advisors such as lawyers or accountants in order to take advice and for the purposes of legal and tribunal proceedings. The legal ground for this is that it is in our legitimate interests as a business to be able to obtain professional advice from our external advisors about issues that may arise within our business.

Will we transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area?

We store your personal information in the United Kingdom or in countries within the European Economic Area (“EEA”).

We will only transfer your personal information outside the EEA where our third party service providers who we share personal information with (as set out above) are based outside the EEA, have support services located outside the EEA or host personal information outside the EEA.

We only transfer your personal information outside the EEA where we have a legal ground for doing so and where we ensure that your personal information is protected to the same standard as it would be protected in the UK. We do this by entering into data sharing agreements with the recipients of your personal information based outside the EEA which comply with the EU Commission’s standard clauses for the transfer of personal information or be ensuring that the third party is signed up to an appropriate Privacy Shield.

If you would like further details about our transfer of your personal information outside the EEA please contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact details at the start of this Notice.

What rights do I have over my personal information?

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), (the UK regulator for data protection issues, please see https://ico.org.uk/. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO and so, if you are happy to do so, please contact Data Protection Officer in the first instance and we will try to resolve your issues.

You have a number of rights over your personal information, which are:

where our use of your personal information is based on your consent, the right to withdraw your consent at any time;

the right to ask us what personal information we have about you and to have a copy of your personal information from us;

the right to ask us to correct any errors in your personal information;

the right to ask us to review and explain our legitimate interests to you;

the right to ask us to delete your personal information where: (i) our processing of your personal information is based on consent, you withdraw that consent and we have no other legal basis to use your personal information; (ii) we don’t need your personal information anymore; (iii) you have asked us to review and explain our legitimate interests to you and we don’t actually have a valid legitimate interest to do what we are doing; (iv) our use of your personal information is illegal; (v) we have to delete your personal information to comply with our legal obligations;

the right to ask us to restrict the use that we are making of your personal information where: (i) you don’t think the personal information we have about you is correct, so that we can check if it is correct; (ii) what we are doing with your personal information is illegal but you would rather we stop using your personal information rather than delete it; (iii) we don’t need your personal information anymore, but you need us to keep it so that you can exercise any legal rights; and (iv) you have asked us to review and explain our legitimate interests to you, so that we can check whether we actually have a valid legitimate interest to do what we are doing; and

the right, where our use of your personal information is carried out for the purposes of an agreement with us and is carried out by automated means, to ask us to provide you with a copy of your personal information in a structured, commonly used, machine readable format.

If you want to exercise any of your rights over your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer by email at dpo@researchbods.com or by calling 0113 246 9994.

How we’ll tell you about changes to this Notice?

We keep this Notice under regular review. Any changes we make to this Notice in the future will be posted on our website and our app and will be notified to you via email where appropriate. Please refer back regularly to find out about any changes we have made to this Notice.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this Notice or about the ways we use your personal information, please contact us by email at dpo@researchbods.com, by calling 0113 246 9994 or by writing to us at DPO, ResearchBods, 4th Floor, 21 Queen Street, Leeds, LS1 2TW.